The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 32

him." It was natural, therefore, that a worldly act should assume an ungodly cha.- meter where opportunity 11rose. 3. It was devilish. " Who pant after the dost of the earth on the head of the poor." It rejoiced in all the incidental evils which oppreHsion of the poor involved. When those it impoverished were levelled in the dost of misery and dogmdation, this was the sort of thing it panted after. One side of a man's moral nature cannot become vitiated without affecting the other sides. The vices have an affinity for one another, and tend to come together in groups. If evil gets in the little linger of one vice, the intrusion of the whole body is only a question of time. III. Wmrn MEN GET SATED WITH SIMPLE SINS, THEY BEBORT TO COMPOUND BINS F'')B A NEW SENSATION, Sin <loes not satisfy any time, and the longer it is followed up it satisfies the less. In the commission of it appetite increases, and relish diminishes pari passu, and so the candle of actual enjoyment is being shortened at both ends. One device in mitigation of this is to increase the dose, and another to multiply the ingredients. Reduced to the latter expedient, Israel mixed : 1. Carousal with undean- ness. The two things often go together. They are the two chief indulgences craved for by carnal appetite. The one, moreover, helps to produce the other. A Falstaff who combines the drunkard with the libertine is the typical debauchee. 3. Unclean- ness wit/1 incest. "A man and his father go to the same girl." This act wa.q equivalent to incest, which was a capital crime according to the Mosaic code (Lev. xviii. 7, 15; xx. 11). It outdid the heathen themselves, among whom this crime was not so much as named (1 Cor. v. I). An apostate is always the vilest sinner (2 Pet. ii. 21, 22). 3. Robbery with all three. "Stretch themselves upon pawned clothes." 'fhis was robbery in two forms. They retained pawned clothes overnight, contrary to the Law of Moses (Exod. xx:ii. 26, 27), and in further violation of it used them to sleep on (Deut. xxiv. 12, 13). "And drink the wine of the amerced." Again a double injustice. The fine was unjustly inflicted, and then dishonestly appropriated. 4. Profanity with the entire troupe. "fn order to profane my holy Name." Incest waa the guiltiest, but as a. carnal indulgence it had no advantage over any other form of uncleanness. It must, therefore, have been sought out because of its very horrors, and with a. view to the profanation of God's holy Name, making the" members the mem- bers of an harlot." "Before every altar," i.e. at Beersheba and Dan, where Jehovah was worshipped after a. fashion (see Keil), and therefore in determinate contempt of God. " In the house of their God," not the idol-god probably, but the God of Israel. "In the time of Jeroboam II. there was no heathenish idolatry in the kingdom of the ten tribes, or at a.ny rate it was not publicly maintained" (Keil). But the sin, though less complicated, was scarcely less heinous than if idolatry bad been a. part of it. It was done of set purpose to dishonour him, a.nd in order to this the place selected for the commission of it was his house, and the occasion the celebration of his worship. What a horrible exhibition of extreme a.nd multiplex depravity! "They condensed sin. By a. sort of economy in the toil of sinning they blended many sins in one . . . and in all the express breach of God's commandments" (Pusey). Vere. 9-11.-The manifold mercies of the covenant people. In striking contrast to Israel's treatment of God stands out his treatment of them. Mercy rises a.hove mercy, tier on tier, in a mighty pyramid of blessing. Of these there wa.s- 1. NATIONAL ADOPTION. This is not mentioned, but it is implied, as underlying all the other favours. God's first step was to make them his people. He loved and chose them (Deut. x. 15; vii. 7, 8). He separated them from the peoples, and took them into covenant with himself (Exod. xxxiii. 16; Gen. xvii. 7, 19). That covenant he sea.led (Gen. x.vii. 13), and all who observed the seal he styled his own people (Isa. xliii. 1), lavishing on them in addition many a. title of affection. This national adoption is the fact that subtends the whole line of Israel's national favours. II. NATIONAL DELIVERANCE. "Brought you up," etc. (ver. 10). This wa.s a stupendous providence; stupendous in its measures and stupendous in its results, a.nd therefore of immense moral significance and weight. The mighty forces of nature are utilized. A haughty heathen nation is brought to its bended knees before the God of the down-trodden Israel. A rabble becomes an army. Crouching slaves become the fearless free. And, out of the chaos of despair and death emerges the young world of a fresh nationBl life. This astounding work was Jehovah's rod to conjure with in tb.~ 32 THE BOOK OF AMOS, [oH, II, 1-16,